Mindset and Emperor Readings

This summer I’ll be reading Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck, where author recognizes there are two types of mindsets after conducting a study on children trying to figure out puzzles that increase difficulty. The mindsets she finds discovers are the fixed and growth. The fixed mindset represents the individuals that only go through life on their genetically given abilities and intellect. In comparison,

the growth mindset are the individuals that rise to a challenge and don’t necessarily care if they get something wrong but want to learn from their failures.

I had parallels to my own life from the suggested situations that resulted with either a fixed or a growth mindset to my own life. I wonder if someone can have a varied mindset that is situational rather than having one or the other.

I have as any other college students have experienced failure if it was from grades to projects to life. I know that I cope with failure knowing that it’s a part of life but the little voice in my head is my own devil’s advocate that always reminds that it would be alright to sit in my own self-pity and eat ice cream all day because I experienced failure. Though I do crave and have ice cream, but I do pick myself up and make a plan on how to correct the situation.

Does that mean in the moment I allow myself to sit in my self-pity is because I have a fixed mindset?

When I read the section on failures, the fixed mindset was fixated on the failure itself and wanting to self-destruct. The growth mindset was learning from their failure and wanting to know what they did wrong so they can correct it for next time.

The growth mindset is how innovation occurs where individuals see a problem and think of ways to solve such problem. This problem-solving method draws parallels in The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee, a historical journey from first discovering cancer to the developments of better equipment and treatments. The book flips from situations of a doctor treating a patient that was just diagnosed with cancer to a doctor testing new experimental drug on live patients with childhood leukemia. There is one front but played in different sections around the world of researchers, medical physicians, families and patients all working together to fight against cancer.

-Alston Feggins, Florida Institute of Technology